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Asos Shares Plummet, Highlighting Brexit Challenges

Company loses more than $1 billion in value in single day

Posted December 18, 2018

After London-based Asos reported weak November sales, its shares plummeted a staggering 38 percent, wiping out nearly $1.3 billion of its company’s stock market value. Though British retailers expected declines due to economic uncertainty surrounding Brexit, the drastic dip in Asos’s stock signals how difficult the UK economy could prove for retailers.

Asos points to slashed prices across the market that forced it to ramp up promotions to win shoppers, reports The Guardian. “In fashion we are seeing an unprecedented level of discounting, certainly something I have not seem before, and that’s across the board,” said Nick Beighton, CEO, Asos.

While the retailer – which sells a combination of other brands’ goods as well as its own lines of products – offered 20-percent-off during Black Friday, it failed to match the more steeply slashed prices of its competitors, hurting its November sales substantially.